What I'm Reading Sept. 22 - Oct. 4

I jumped back into a couple series and I'm getting really far behind on my reviews.

Reading:

Dust of Dreams (Malazan 9) by Steven Erikson - 250 out of 889. Still plugging along and it's awesome. That first 100 or so pages was amazing and now we're back to the set-up phase, still good though.

Summer Knight (Dresden Files 4) by Jim Butcher - 100 out of 371. Picked this up randomly and suddenly I was 100 pages in. It's been a while since I read Grave Peril, but, and this is part of the reason I started taking longer breaks between Dresden books, it fills in all the details (and I mean all) as you go.

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Zombies by Matt Mogk - 80 out of 288. No progress. I'm letting this one sit for a bit. Good, but only in pieces, plus I'm trying to catch up on my goals.

Audiobook:

Shadow of the Hegemon by Orson Scott Card - 3 out of 11 CD's. Suddenly I'm reading tons of OSC, I don't know where this came from.

For Review:

Laddertop #1 by OSC and Emily Janice Card, Illustrated by Honoel A. Ibardolaza (manga)

Heaven's Needle by Liane Merciel - This was a great sequel that was even better than the first.

Low Town by Daniel Polansky - Been sitting on this to post, waiting to get closer to a possible interview.

The Prestige by Christopher Priest - Different enough from the movie to make it worth the read.

What I'm Reading Aug. 22 - Sept. 6

I've done a bit better the last couple weeks reading-wise, moved some things around a bit, and now I'm back in business.

Reading Progress:

Low Town by Daniel Polansky - 150 out of 341. I'm impressed so far although worried I may already have called the ending. We'll see I guess, although it's still good.

Heaven's Needle by Liane Merciel - 88 out of 473. I love this series and this book sucked me right in immediately.

Lord of Chaos (WoT Book 6) by Robert Jordan - I decided to put this to the side for now. I'm loving it (although the glacial pace is really apparent in this volume), but I felt bad about not reading some of my review books. I'll head back into the Wheel of Time in a month or so.

Audiobook:

The Lost Gate (Mither Mages 1) by Orson Scott Card - 1 out of 10 CD's. I'm glad Stefan Rudnicki is back on this one. He just does an amazing job. So far, we'll see, I don't really have high hopes based on reviews I've read.

Finished:

RuneScape: Betrayal at Falador - Review here.

The Prestige by Christopher Priest (Audiobook) - Awesome. Different from the movie but I loved both versions.

Demon Squad: Resurrection by Tim Marquitz - I owe a huge apology to Tim for the time it took me to read this. I loved it, but it took me way too long.

Book Haul

Warehouse 13: A Touch of Fever by Greg Cox (Amazon) I'm not sure about this one. I'm a little tired of tie-ins for now, so it may be a while before I get to it.

This original novel is the official tie-in to Warehouse 13, one of the hottest shows on the Syfy Channel. Like the TV drama, the novel tracks U.S. Secret Service Agents Peter Latimer and Myka Bering as they tap the supernatural artifacts of Warehouse 13 to solve troubling mysteries. In A Touch of Fear, Pete and Myka battle a madman-unleashed plague and the loss of a team member. A mass market original that will keep you guessing.

Grave Expectations by Charles Dickens and Sherri Browning Erwin (Amazon) I haven't quite made my mind up about mash-ups. I haven't had great luck (Abraham Lincold: Vampire Hunter), but that wasn't fully a mash-up. I hope this proves my expectations wrong.

A clever literary mash-up that rewrites Charles Dickens's Great Expectations with Pip as a werewolf and Estella as a vampire slayer.

Low Town by Daniel Polansky (Amazon) This one's been getting lots of good reviews lately, so I have to same I'm looking forward to it.

In the forgotten back alleys and flophouses that lie in the shadows of Rigus, the finest city of the Thirteen Lands, you will find Low Town. It is an ugly place, and its cham­pion is an ugly man. Disgraced intelligence agent. Forgotten war hero. Independent drug dealer. After a fall from grace five years ago, a man known as the Warden leads a life of crime, addicted to cheap violence and expensive drugs. Every day is a constant hustle to find new customers and protect his turf from low-life competition like Tancred the Harelip and Ling Chi, the enigmatic crime lord of the heathens.

The Warden’s life of drugged iniquity is shaken by his dis­covery of a murdered child down a dead-end street . . . set­ting him on a collision course with the life he left behind. As a former agent with Black House—the secret police—he knows better than anyone that murder in Low Town is an everyday thing, the kind of crime that doesn’t get investi­gated. To protect his home, he will take part in a dangerous game of deception between underworld bosses and the psy­chotic head of Black House, but the truth is far darker than he imagines. In Low Town, no one can be trusted.

Daniel Polansky has crafted a thrilling novel steeped in noir sensibilities and relentless action, and set in an original world of stunning imagination, leading to a gut-wrenching, unforeseeable conclusion. Low Town is an attention-grabbing debut that will leave readers riveted . . . and hun­gry for more.